Five Forge startups, AP Renewables, EarthOne, Enhanced Medical Nutrition, ImaginAble Solutions, and StrongBo Agritech, have joined the first cohort of the i.d.e.a Fund developed to support and position local economies in southern Ontario for long-term growth.
Fifteen additional companies were accepted into the cohort, receiving a non-repayable contribution of $600,000 from Innovation Factory, in partnership with Innovation Guelph, through the Government of Canada-supported i.d.e.a Fund.
The fund provides high potential businesses with the opportunity to receive seed funding and business advisory supports to develop or redesign green products, services, processes, and technologies to reduce their impact on the environment. Applications for the next cohort of the i.d.e.a. Fund will open in March 2023.
The Forge startup selected to Cohort 1 of the i.d.e.a. Fund are:
AP Renewables: AP Renewables develops hardware and software solutions that enable renewable energy asset owners and operators to optimize asset performance and lower operations costs. AP Renewables’ SCADA Scope Ecosystem integrates domain expertise, statistical and neural network modeling, and IoT connectivity to generate business intelligence for faster and more accurate data-driven decision making. SCADA Scope seamlessly weaves together a variety of key performance indicators and operational factors, making it easier for owners to make scientifically and technically sound decisions. AP Renewables’ products are trusted by commercial wind farms across North and South America, including Brookfield Renewables, Enbridge, Algonquin Power, CMI, E.ON and EDF.
EarthOne: Millions of plants die at the hands of their plant owners every year. Limited access to plant knowledge and real-time insights leaves many plant owners helpless when their plants don’t thrive. Luckily, EarthOne has developed a hardware and software solution that collects important health metrics and delivers them to your fingertips. Simply plug it into your plant to get started!
Enhanced Medical Nutrition: Enhanced Medical Nutrition (“EMN”) builds clinical nutrition products to help patients prepare better and recover faster from surgery and critical illness. EMN’s initial offerings include evidence-based enteral formulas (drinks/tube feeds) to support muscle metabolism, immune function, and accelerate recovery.
ImaginAble Solutions: Imaginable Solutions has developed Guided Hands™, an assistive device designed to enable people living with limited hand mobility to write, paint, draw and use a touch-screen device. ImaginAble helps people living with Cerebral Palsy, Huntington’s Disease, arthritis and even those recovering from spinal cord injuries and strokes among others. Guided Hands™ improves the quality of life by enabling communication, developing cognitive skills, promoting independence and allowing the user to do what they love!
StrongBó Agritech: Strongbó aims to revolutionise the beef production industry by creating a data-based value chain and information network to connect the industries involved in the beef production sector. Farms that implement our technologies benefit from, real-time illnesses notifications, live production metrics, the ability to validate dietary advice, and confidence that they are selling livestock at the exact right time. This is critical information that is needed to enable the next level of livestock management and performance.